Page 54 - bne IntelliNews Russia OUTLOOK 2025

"The corporate portfolio increased by [a] significant RUB1.8 trillion (+2.3% after +1.5% in June and +1.4% in May, net of a large bridge loan). The incremental growth rate was provided by ruble-denominated loans (+RUB1.7 trillion ($18.6bn), +2.6%) to companies from a wide range of industries. Loans were largely disbursed for replenishment of the working capital and financing of investment projects, including acquisition of new equipment for production processes optimisation," the CBR said.
The major event in the banking sector was the US decision to impose sanctions on Gazprombank , which had managed to avoid being included in the US sanctions blacklist since February 2022 and was finally included at the end of November. Six foreign subsidiaries of Gazprombank were also included in the SDN list – branches in Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Switzerland, South Africa and two structures in Cyprus. Before that day, only the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand had imposed sanctions against the bank.
Gazprombank has been playing a key role in gas payments to unfriendly countries since spring 2022.
Gazprombank could potentially be replaced by Western banks still operating in the Russian market. For now, it is still possible to handle large international transactions via banks that have not withdrawn from the country, such as Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank (ranked 13th among Russia’s largest banks in terms of assets), Italy’s UniCredit (18th) or Hungary’s OTP Bank (24th). However, these institutions also risk being subject to US sanctions, since Washington has already warned that they might be cut off from the American financial system. In 2022, all
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